


Slythering Slytherin, Quit With Your Dithering.

by SunshineScorpius



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Brotherly Love, Gen, Harry Potter Next Generation, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, James just really loves his brother, but he struggles to show it sometimes, must be a potter thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-09 01:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20986940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunshineScorpius/pseuds/SunshineScorpius
Summary: On September 1st, 2017, James Potters' little brother, Albus, faces the famous Sorting Hat. James loved to tease Albus about the possibility of his house – he always had been different from the other members of his family – but James never suspected Albus really would end up in the house of the snakes.





	Slythering Slytherin, Quit With Your Dithering.

“I’m not saying you _will_ be in Slytherin, Al! We just have to consider the possibility. There’s a reason that snake liked you at the zoo the other day!” His younger brother gave him a massive shove, making James stumble to the side slightly as laughter rang through his body. Albus was not as impressed. James held his hands up in surrender until Albus stopped his glaring and returned to his luggage cart. Then James hissed in his ear before running off, disappearing between platforms nine and ten, hearing Albus briefly moan about him to their parents.

When his mum came through the wall holding Lily’s hands, she was glaring at him. James smirked, holding his hands up. “What?”

“Don’t ‘what’ me, James Sirius Potter, don’t pretend you don’t know what you did!” She scolded, whacking him lightly on the arm.

“I only said he _might_ be in Slytherin, and he might be,” he defended. She glared at him again just as Albus and his dad came onto the platform. Albus was pouting at him so James relented, patting him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, Al, but even you have to admit green is your colour.”

“JAMES!” He screamed, hitting him _much _harder than his mum did.

“Ow!” James scorned back, rubbing his arm.

“You deserve it,” Albus spat, crossing his arms.

“Mum, he just hit me!”

“You deserved it,” Ginny replied, rolling her eyes and looking for her brother and his kids. Albus stuck his tongue out at James, showing him that this was still friendly between them. He smiled at his little brother, rubbing his hair before pulling him into a brief hug, which he protested against.

“There they are!” The excited cry of their little sister broke them from their scuffle and James winked at Albus before stalking off to his family. Lily was currently in a hug with his Uncle Ron and sat down on James’ set of luggage when Ron offered to do his famous ‘nose-stealing breath’ trick.

“Mum! Dad’s doing that lame thing again!” Rose said, stalking over and folding her arms. James laughed. First years always find their parents particularly embarrassing. Even James did in his first year, but now there’s no way he’d leave the platform without a hug from his mum and dad.

Aunt Hermione rolled her eyes, putting her arm around Rose. “You say lame, he says glorious, I say… somewhere in between.”

“Give him some credit, Minister,” James joked, winking at her. She hated it when her family referred to her by her official title, which, of course, meant James did it as often as he could. She wiggled a finger at him, narrowing her eyes, which could only mean one thing: _watch it, James Sirius._ He winked again.

Whilst Ron started his trick, resulting in Lily falling into a fit of giggles and even getting the rare laugh out of Rose, James noticed Albus. He was standing quite the distance from them – his _family _– as though he didn’t belong with them. He was gripping onto his luggage cart like his life depended on it and he was simply watching them. He’d pulled his hood up, half hiding his messy black hair and James knew exactly why – people were staring. And if there was one thing Albus hated, it was being stared at.

James leaned slightly forward, the rapid movement catching Albus’ eye, and he smiled, gesturing to him with his head to come over, watch closer and be with them because he _is_ one of them. Albus only smiled, averting his eyes rather quickly to his trunk. James pretended like his heart didn’t sink and returned back to the joke, only to find it had finished.

“Everyone’s staring at us _again!”_ Albus said, now sitting on the front of his trunk.

“Because of me,” Ron started, puffing his chest. “I’m extremely famous. My nose experiments are legendary.” James rolled his eyes, shaking his head fondly. The Granger-Weasley’s quickly entered a conversation about Ron’s driving, prompted by James’ dad, and James saw Albus deflate. He’d been ignored… again.

Just as James was about to go over and ask how he was feeling – first year was a big year – Albus tugged on his dad’s robes and Harry’s attention was suddenly on him. James left them to it, tuning back into the conversation with Uncle Ron, knowing that his dad always knew the right thing to say. Albus seemed a little more confident after their talk, but James never got the chance to talk to him because Rose was dragging him off and onto the train.

James wished his parents goodbye and gave them each a big hug before hugging Lily. James hopped on the train, finding his friends in their compartment. James only stayed with them for the better part of an hour before standing up.

“I’m going to check on Albus,” he announced.

“Really, Jamie? We’ve barely been on the train for an hour, surely mini Potter won’t have spontaneously combusted in that time. We were just about to play Exploding Snap,” Nick said, raising his eyebrows at James.

“You can play me in after, I just want to check he’s settled,” James said, shuffling out of the compartment.

“Fine, but if the Trolley Witch comes, I won’t get you any chocolate frogs,” he smirked.

James smirked back, “then I’ll Confund you during Quidditch try-outs.” Nick’s smirk dropped to a pout.

“Fine,” was all he said. James smiled and winked at him before leaving the compartment and closing the door behind him. He stalked down the train, not entirely sure where he’d find his little brother. It was a while before he came across Rose, laughing in a compartment with a blonde girl, a boy with curly brown hair and another with short brown hair.

James opened the door, eyeing all the members in the compartment before turning to Rose. “Where’s Albus?”

“Hello to you too, James,” she giggled, getting a small laughter from her new group of friends.

“I thought you were sticking together, Rose.”

“He wanted to sit with the Malfoy boy and I didn’t, so Albus is with him,” she explained with a shrug.

“Albus Potter is sat with Voldemort’s son?” The boy with short brown hair said in a thick Irish accent. James narrowed his eyes at him, confused at the statement.

“What?”

“Scorpius Malfoy,” Rose explained, “the rumour is he’s Voldemort’s son.”

“What a load of rubbish,” James said. “Where is he?”

“Couple of compartments back,” she said, turning back to her friends. James nodded, closing the door and walking up the carriage again.

James hoped she and Albus hadn’t argued about the Malfoy boy. They would need each other when Scorpius inevitably gets sorted into Slytherin and Albus into Gryffindor. James may have teased him a lot, but Albus was a Potter. Potters belonged in Gryffindor. Just as Malfoys belonged in Slytherin, it was simply nature.

Not that James was worried about Albus. Albus was and had always been an excellent judge of character, so if he befriended Scorpius, then the odds are he’s a decent kid. Albus was always the quietest of the three siblings, always watching and never joining in. It gave him the patience and kindness that James didn’t have, who definitely took after the more chaotic traits of the Potters. Albus was more Weasley than Potter. There was no doubt that in his personality, he was his mother’s son.

James found Albus’ compartment not long after Rose. He took a quick look in, smiling when he found Albus laughing louder than he’d ever seen him laugh before, eyes lit up with amusement and even nearly shedding a tear. Rose was right; he was with Scorpius Malfoy. Scorpius was telling a story, hands wildly gesturing all over the place, eyes wide and bright. He didn’t look anything like James expected the rumoured son of Voldemort to look. Scorpius resembled the Malfoys in nearly every way.

He knocked softly on the compartment door, causing Scorpius to silence himself immediately and the light-hearted air quickly fade to tension too thick to cut with even a knife. Albus’ smile faded slightly, his mouth gaping in confusion. James didn’t miss Scorpius shuffling over to the other side of the compartment, pulling his legs onto the chair and hugging himself, avoiding all eye contact.

“What’s up, James?” Albus said, slightly annoyed. “We were talking.”

“I can see that. I just wanted to check up on you, make sure you settled in well and all that,” James replied. There was a short silence whilst Albus nodded in response. Unsure on what to say as the tension grew thicker, James held his hand out to Scorpius. “I’m James, James Potter. Al’s brother,” he introduced.

Scorpius looked at his outstretched hand before looking at Albus who nodded. Only then did he take James’ hand limply and shook it. “Scorpius,” he said quietly.

“So, you’re good, Al?”

“I’m good, James. Thanks,” he spoke, nervously twiddling with the sleeves of his robes. Scorpius was, strangely enough, mirroring his actions. It seems Albus may have met his match. James nodded to them both, exiting the compartment and going back to his friends.

The train journey passed quickly. Upon exiting the train, James tried to catch a glimpse of Albus just to send him a smile and a nod – a small gesture telling him he’ll be completely fine. But, he never saw Albus. Not until they were all sat down in the Great Hall, bellies rumbling from the knowledge that soon they’ll be having a feast fit for a King.

When the doors opened to reveal the tiny first years, James spotted Scorpius Malfoy instantly standing out from the crowd with his incredibly light hair. And, of course, next to him stood Albus, his robes hood pulled over his head. He really hated his hair – hair like their fathers. James wondered if people have been pointing it out. He spotted Rose too, still with the same people from the carriage, and up in the rear was his other cousin Molly Weasley Junior, talking to a couple of girls.

He’ll be honest, he didn’t listen much to the sorting ceremony until Rose was called up. The hat was barely placed on her head before declaring, “GRYFFINDOR!”. Rose jumped out of the seat, thanking Professor Longbottom before skipping over to the end of the Gryffindor table. She caught James’ eye and he winked at her.

The next up that James was actually interested in was Scorpius, who nervously made his way up to the stool. He sat down, managing a smile at someone in the crowd – Albus, no doubt – before the hat was placed on his head. There was complete and utter silence for five minutes. It was so quiet; a pin drop would be heard. No one expected Scorpius Malfoy to be a hat stall, but he was yet to be sorted. After the five minutes, the hat finally concluded, “SLYTHERIN!”

The hall broke out into chatter, a wicked remark of, “well that makes sense!” coming from one of the first years. Scorpius visibly deflated, shaking his head slightly at Albus before walking defeatedly over to the Slytherin table. James had to admit he felt a pang of heartache for him when others at the table moved away from him.

A few more names were called before Albus’ which James tuned out on, focusing on his brother whose eyes were cast to the floor. When Professor Longbottom called Albus’ name, he was so zoned out that Molly had to nudge him. He walked up with wobbly steps and sat on the stool. Once again, the hall was cast to silence.

“Gryffindor, Gryffindor, Gryffindor,” James muttered to himself, almost like he could use Legilimency to persuade the Sorting Hat.

Three minutes passed.

James held his breath, his hand gripped tightly on his glass of water.

A flash of fear crossed Albus’ eyes.

“SLYTHERIN!”

There was a stunned silence before the hall broke out into murmurs that James couldn’t comprehend. He was shocked. Yes, he joked about it – a lot – and he teased him, but he didn’t think it would actually _happen._ He tried to catch Albus’ eye, but he wouldn’t look up from the floor. Scorpius stood, ready to comfort him when Albus reached the table.

“Albus!” He heard Rose shout. “Albus! This isn’t how it’s meant to be!” _Well, you shouldn’t have left him alone in a compartment with Scorpius Malfoy, _he thought. Then thought that thought was rather unfair on Scorpius.

“A Potter? In Slytherin!” James heard Craig Bowker shout rather excitedly, but mostly other students were just being mean.

When Albus finally looked up and met James’ eye, all James could mime was, “I’m sorry,” but Albus quickly averted his eyes to the floor.

James’ heart shattered. He should never have teased him or taunted him. If faced with a boggart, Albus’ biggest fear would have been ending up in Slytherin house, and his biggest fear had just become a reality.

At the end of the feast, after his cousin Molly had also been sorted into Slytherin, James tried to catch Albus before he left the hall. However, Scorpius and Albus were the first two out, not caring to follow the prefects. They both just ran, probably to find somewhere to hide from the bullies. James went to follow, but Rose’s hand in his stopped him.

Albus was strong. He was brave. James knew that. Because deep down, Albus had a lion’s heart. He’d get through this, and he might even end up liking it down in the dungeons. But for now, James headed to bed with a heavy heart, wishing he knew whether or not his brother was okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @evieadams273 for being a Beta for me!  
Hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments always welcome and encouraged :)  
Twitter: @sunshinescorp  
Tumblr: @sunshinescorpiusmalfoy


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